PRimed for sound

Vinyl record advocate and musician Jack White led a successful project to launch and land a vinyl record player into space and back without the player stopping - or even the needle skipping. The record player, souped up for conditions to operate on the edge of earth's atmosphere, played during the entire journey of the 96,000 foot trip by balloon. The apparatus descended back to earth, eased by parachute, landed and was found with the record still spinning and music still playing.​

The last month of summer is upon us along with its heat. But as we go into the fall, things inside Primary Sound will still remain hot. There will be several projects going on at the Bloomington studio as well as some significant upgrades to equipment.

Here is a quick preview of what's going on, with more info to come:

Southern Indiana's Split Rail, an Alt-Country/Neo-Outlaw outfit with Midwestern rock sensibilities, recorded its first album at PSS this summer with the record slated to be released in September. Maximum effort is going into producing, mixing and mastering​ Split Rail's initial release by PSS and master audio technician Jake Belser. This editor got an ear sample of a few seconds of a track at PSS recently, and let me just say - it sounds f&*%$@g awesome!

Six time Grammy award winning Irish folklore band, the Chieftains stopped into Primary Sound Studios this summer to provide overdubs to the recording of Country/Bluegrass artist Jeff White's new album, scheduled for a fall release. With the magic of the Chieftains reverberating in the Ole' church studio of PSS, this album can't help but sound amazing.

Another top Indiana band, Pissed Off Catfish, recorded their third album at Primary Sound Studios this summer as well. With a fall release scheduled for the album, the Country/Blues band looks to do some heavy touring this fall and winter.

The University of Notre Dame's Children's Choir was recorded by Jake Belser of Primary Sound Studios at the Saint Meinrad's Cathedral Monastery recently. The Christmas album is currently being mixed and edited by Belser to be ready for a holiday release.

Jake and Primary Sound Studios is excited to announce that a Raven M12 touch screen audio control panel is coming to the studio soon. Look for a podcast presentation and review of the new piece of technology after the fellas at PSS have a go at it!

Also new to the studio are several brand new Shure head phone personal mixing stations with eight controllers each. PSS hopes to grant each artist more control of audio input during their recording sessions.

Sought after studio session drummer John Marque skills on the kit keep him busy providing drum tracks in the studio for artists ranging in genre from country and jazz to rock and alternative. Recently, Marque got behind the drum set at Primary Sound Studios in Bloomington to arrange the beats and play on Indianapolis singer/songwriter Scott McClelland’s new album.

When top area artists need a drummer, Marque is routinely the go to guy to get the job done, providing both arrangement and the skillful playing necessary to produce a professionally sounding record. At PSS alone, he has played on tracks and albums by Cari Ray, Bill Headley, Ryan Beck, Carrie Pietz, Jess Kendall and Matt Epp.

Marque holds a master’s degree in Jazz studies from the prestigious Jacobs School of Music - IU and is a high school percussion director. He also is a jazz percussion composer and gets his licks laying down rock and pop beats for the Bishops, a national party band. He and the Bishops were the featured performers this past weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Brickyard 400 Miller Lite party deck.

Bloomington’s Secretly Canadian release of Anohni’s album Hopelessness is considered to be one of 2016’s best pop albums, according to the Los Angeles Times. The album from the southern Indiana record label and Anohni is mentioned as one of the top works so far in 2016 pop that includes a list of artists such as Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, David Bowie and Jerry Lee Lewis. New York, L.A., Nashville and London aren’t the only places where you’ll find top music being produced.

Veteran San Diego rockers released their 10th studio album today, titled Where The Light Shines Through. Switchfoot has always sought to uplift and inspire while rocking out. The new release is no different from previous albums in that regard but with an added twist. The single Float is a mostly R&B pop track complete with scratch rhythm guitar and high pitched vocals. Though a slight departure from the usual solid alternative rock song the band is known for, the former surfing friends pull it off quite nicely, showing that the band can pretty much do it all. Check it outbelow:

From Primed for Sound Editor:​​The fourth of July, America declared its independence as a nation to the world, representing a bold new direction and new way of looking at things. So on this fourth, it seems fitting to highlight someone who could be on his way to doing the same for music – and perhaps the Singularity?

In case you haven’t heard, we are talking about Jacob Collier, a freakishly talented multi-instrumentalist, who at only 21, has captured the attention of music icons such as Quincy Jones and Herbie Hancock. Jones contacted Collier and signed him to his record label soon after seeing Collier’s covers of a few pop music classics on Youtube.

With four tracks out for public consumption since April, Collier’s debut album, In My Room, was fully released just a few days ago. The single, by the same name on the album, is Collier's remake of the Beach Boys Brian Wilson classic.The young, wirely Brit appears to have the chops and breadth of knowledge to become a new age version of a musical renaissance man – or person, we should say.

His abilities as an instrumentalist and composer are leaving musical titans slack jawed, and unequivocally aware that they are witnessing something special. Collier also blew minds with his video production. He uses multiple split screen shots in his music videos so that viewers can see all that is going on, with the talented musician playing multiple instruments, vocally harmonizing, and using recording technology to loop and multi-track.

Geeky – pale skinned and thin, innocent looking and unassuming, attired only in his video game playing best, and not a hint of a rebellious attitude, Collier seems an unlikely choice for the role of music game changer, especially considering the current music scene.

But in the rapid pace technological world which we live in, the era of the geek has cast its gangly shadow over pretty much everything. And the young Collier appears to have landed yet another blow for his physically fragile, female averse brethren in the realm of music. By combining classically trained level music skills with a millennials mastery of technology, Collier has put himself on the cusp of something truly unique.

Case in point. MIT developed, with Collier’s help, a device that allows music to be looped live in real time. Collier uses it to great effect in live performances, as he often harmonizes with parts of the song he had just previously played moments before. It also allows him the ability to move from one instrument to the next without the beat breaking down as he plays live, providing an interactive musical laboratory for Collier to explore.

Not only do Jazz, R&B, and alternative find their way through Collier’s arrangements but choral and pop do as well, flowing out of a savant like musicianship, weaving through his compositions without any moments of hesitation or any loss musical integrity.

By seamlessly synthesizing multiple genres of music through a vocal keyboard synthesizer, and all manner of instruments, Collier gives the impression of being in full musical command. But watching and listening a little closer though, it seems that Collier may be under the command of something else. Something beyond – a higher musically language perhaps. And it is one that he humbly pays close attention to.

There is often talk of a Singularity occurring – that is when technology and humans merge to become one symbiotic entity, ushering in a new frontier of human existence.

If we are moving toward some sort of Singularity, could music be the first portal into it? After all, it was the music industry first to be impacted by computer technology, with everything else lagging years and even decades behind.

It is hard to imagine if we are approaching something like a Singularity. But if we are, Collier will be counted as one of its first travelers and pioneering explorers, showing the way through music.

Without further ado, here is Jacob Collier and his fourth single, Hajanga, from his debut album In My Room:

With automated mastering technology like LANDR available and cheap, are mastering engineers still necessary?Take a look at this article by Jordan Kisner, a Pitchfork contributor - and decide for yourself.

Paul Simon, currently on tour promoting his new album Stranger to Stranger and in New York, recently expressed a longing to leave the music industry altogether, potentially making his latest release his last.

​​A brand new website and new name is not the only thing to have recently changed at Primary Sound Studios. Owner and chief engineer, Jake Belser, has just completed installing three new isolation booths in the PSS studio.

Now Primary Sound boasts a total of six isolation booths. Jake is looking forward to providing those who choose to record with PSS more versatility, and increased flexibility in their recording sessions with the additions.

It is an added bonus and another positive in a string of positives Primary Sound has been experiencing. Recorded at Primary Sound, the album Intercambio, released in the summer of 2015 by the Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet, was nominated for a Grammy for best Latin Jazz performance in February.

Also, Indianapolis based Lily and Madeleine have made Primary Sound Studios their choice of recording studios, having recorded their first album Lily & Madeleine at the Bloomington studio with Paul Mahern as their producer. The talented young ladies have recently released a third album titled Keep It Together.

​Prominent jazz composer and professor of music at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, ​David Baker, who passed away in March at the age of 84, will be honored in a most personal way by some of his former students Tuesday the 21st of June at Primary Sound Studios in Bloomington.

Students who Baker taught and inspired will gather at the studio to play and record several of his jazz compositions. The results of the two day scheduled session will be assembled into an album to be tentatively released as Volume Three.

Baker, a long time teacher of music at IU, is credited with over 2,000 jazz symphonic compositions. He also produced 65 recordings, 70 books and 400 articles all related to jazz. He first began teaching music at IU in the early sixties, and started the jazz program at IU in 1966, where no such program existed before.

With improvised playing rooted in the jazz music language, Baker pioneered and developed teaching methods that articulated jazz and codified improvisation. His breakthroughs allowed his students deeper access to the jazz lexicon and also standardized jazz instruction at the university level. As a writer discussing jazz, and a composer, Baker was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy as well.

A jaw injury in his early career as a jazz trombonist ended his ability to play a horned instrument with the rigor required of a professional, so improvising, Baker turned his considerable talents and extensive experience to educating and composing.

His original desire was to play in a symphony orchestra, but in the ‘50s nearly all symphonies in the US maintained a policy of racial segregation, leaving him to focus solely on jazz.

​And focus he did. Baker, who was born in Indianapolis and graduated from Indiana University, is considered to have as much influence on the distinctly American musical genre as many of the all-time jazz greats.